June 14, 2013

The Road

If this parliament were a novel, it
would be Cormac McCarthy's The Road - a post-apocalyptic nightmare of a
civilised world descending into eternal darkness while humans wander a
wasteland eating each other.

No one knows what caused the armageddon. Whatever it was, it was very bad. Perhaps it was Kevin Rudd.What
presented as political debate this week was a work of fiction. It was
as grounded in reality as McCarthy's frightening vision of depravity and
loss of hope.

Despite my fear of being wrong a third time in a row, I will say this week is the nadir of federal politics. I've
said it twice in the past and both times I have been wrong - because it
keeps getting worse. ...

The
introduction of abortion on to a national stage already cluttered with
nonsense was an objectionable political stunt. That is saying something
considering the stunts performed in this parliament over the past three
years....Just to demonstrate how badly it was received, even the country's leading feminists attacked the PM.This
is what Eva Cox from the Women's electoral lobby said about it: "I've
got some concerns this was all about the backroom boys wanting to revive
the misogyny speech because they got a good reaction to it. She
conveniently overlooked many failings on her own watch that have
affected women."...In 2006, Gillard admitted during debate on RU486, that the legality of abortion was a state and territory issue. ... And rather than find furious disagreement with Abbott, she endorsed his position when he was health minister. ..."Many members
including the minister for health (Abbott) have adopted the Bill Clinton
terminology that they would like to see a circumstance where abortion
was safe, legal and rare. I agree with those comments. We would also
like to see a circumstance where abortion was safe, legal and rare."

It
is hard to believe that this newly confected fear campaign about Abbott
changing his position on abortion was not all linked to the idiocy now
known as Menugate.

It was an appalling incident. But it no way
suggests that the Coalition is a collective misogyny club - as much as
jokes by the unions about Abbott's relationship with his chief of staff
doesn't mean the Labor caucus are all grubs....As The Daily Telegraph revealed, Shorten is now counting numbers. And those numbers are falling Rudd's way....One
senior Labor MP said that, unless something happens, he was prepared to
walk into caucus on Tuesday next week and challenge the PM himself.

"I'll blow the bloody show up," they said.

The problem now is that Labor is in such a disastrous state that Rudd is no longer even necessarily committed to coming back.

Like McCarthy's The Road, no one knows what happens in the end. Someone lives - but plenty of other people die.